


Have Your Cake (And Eat It Too)

by blueberrytobio (starqueen)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Baking, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Presents, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 07:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8970517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starqueen/pseuds/blueberrytobio
Summary: Kageyama bakes himself a cake for his birthday. It's really not as depressing as Tsukishima is making it out to be.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Tobio!
> 
> I know Tobio's birthday didn't fall on a Sunday but I needed him to be at home. I don't exactly know what year haikyuu!! is set on anyway so hopefully it was a Sunday that year.

Right as he is about to go to sleep on the night before his birthday, Tobio’s phone buzzes with a text.

_[Hinata Shouyou (Received 11:43 PM)]_  
_Do you have any plans for tomorrow?_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Sent 11:44 PM)]_  
_I might go for a run_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Received 11:45 PM)]_  
_You aren’t doing anything special?_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Sent 11:47 PM)]_  
_Nah_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Received 11:49 PM)]_  
_Will your mom be home?_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Sent 11:50 PM)]_  
_Nah, she works two shifts on sundays_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Received 11:51 PM)]_  
_So you're sure you'll be home? All day?_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Sent 11:51 PM)]_  
_Probably. Why do u ask?_

_[Hinata Shouyou (Received 11:53 PM)]_  
_No reason at all!! I was just trying to make conversation!!! Have fun brooding all day in the dark!! :) :) :)_

The fact that Hinata thinks he’s being subtle is sort of funny. But Tobio isn't playing dumb. He really doesn’t have any plans for anything exciting. His birthday really is just another day in the year for him. His mother and him had a tradition of baking a cake ever since he was five, but when he was twelve and his parents got divorced his mother didn't have time anymore. Tobio knows that she’s busy in the hospital and she really doesn’t mean to be so distant so he tries not to hold it against her.

Tobio still bought all the necessary ingredients for the cake on his birthday after the divorce. He waited for his mom to start, but after waiting almost all day she called him to say she was working an extra shift at the hospital. The next year she told him in advance that she couldn't make it back in time for dinner so Tobio bought himself a slice of cake on his way back from school because not having had cake on his past birthday was depressing. A single slice of store-bought cake somehow turned out to be way more depressing than he thought it would be. He felt so bad that he ended up running to the store and buying everything he needed for cake and baked for the entire night. Baking is something he loves and it really made him feel better despite the unideal situation. So he decided to keep the tradition going on by himself. Next year he bought everything in advance and baked himself his own birthday cake. It wasn't ideal but it still beat the last two years so he decided to keep the tradition. It's sort of therapeutic and he likes cake.

His watch beeps as the clock strikes twelve and his phone buzzes almost immediately. It's a new text from from Hinata, a “happy birthday” followed by three lines of exclamation marks and emojis.

This year he thinks he might bring the leftover cake to practice and give it to his teammates. That's a normal thing to do, right? He can just omit the part where he tells them that he baked it by himself on his own birthday.

* * *

_[Dumber (Sent 9:57AM)]_  
_What did he say?_

_[Dumber (Sent 9:58AM)]_  
_My, my, aren't we eager ;)_

_[Dumber (Sent 9:59AM)]_  
_Hinata I'm going to strangle you_

_[Dumber (Sent 10:01AM)]_  
_Relax Tsukishima~ he said he'll be home all day. Are you gonna visit him?_

Kei doesn't bother answering Hinata. He knows if he answers, Hinata will just continue to tease him about his —apparently obvious— crush on Kageyama.

He really thought he was being subtle. If not subtle at least he didn't think it was that obvious. But then he asked Hinata if he knew what time kageyama would be home on his birthday and Hinata’s face instantly broke into a cheeky grin.

“Why do want to know? Are you gonna confess to him?”

“What?” Kei face instantly turned red. “What makes you think that?”

“Come on Tsukishima! The only person in this school who doesn't know you like Kageyama is Kageyama!”

After almost five minutes of teasing, Tsukishima gave in and admitted that he is in fact slightly interested in Kageyama. It then took him almost ten minutes to convince Hinata to shut up and help him find out what time Kageyama will be home so he can give him a present.

The gift isn't anything special. It's a new sports bag because Kei saw that Kageyama’s was beat up and worn at the stress point and he probably needed a new one soon. Kei reasoned that it would be better if Kageyama got a new one before they went to nationals and he just happened to find a sports bag that looked perfect for Kageyama —black, with dark blue details—. It was a good quality bag and it just happened to be on sale on the exact day that Kei visited the store. It was a great opportunity, so shut up.

That’s the version tells everyone anyway. The slightly more embarrassing version is that he walked past the sports store, saw the bag on the display and he was walking to his house carrying the damn thing before he realized.

Naturally, he regretted it immediately after he bought it. It wasn’t about the price, —the bag truly was on sale, but deep down Kei knows he would have paid full price for it— it was more about the fact that now he had to find a way to actually _give it to Kageyama_.

Which, yeah... Not happening. If he gave it him in front of all their teammates they would certainly find out about his crush. Plus, they would also tease Kageyama and embarrass him and while Tsukishima lives to tease Kageyama he actually wants Kageyama to like his gift. Overall it was just a better idea to give Kageyama the present when they were alone.

Which just brought a brand-new set of problems. Mainly, where does Kageyama even live and what time can he take visits. Those two problems could be easily solved by the same person —Hinata Shouyou— although it sure took a toll off of Kei’s pride.

So now he’s standing outside the King's palace, holding a gift box and probably looking like a fool.

Kageyama’s house is nice. It's big and elegant and somehow exactly what Kei had in mind. He approaches the door and rings the doorbell, holding his breath. He tells himself he'll only ring once and he'll wait fifteen second and if Kageyama doesn't answer he'll leave and never think about it again.

Of course, Kageyama opens the door in less than ten seconds. He looks at Tsukishima and frowns.

“Tsukishima? What are you doing here?”

This is it. This is the moment he was dreading. He wordlessly extends the box.

Kageyama stares at him.

“What King? Don't like being handed things?”

“Is that for me?”

God this idiot. “It’s called a present, King. Are you really not familiar with the concept?”

“I… Thank you?” Kageyama grabs the present and he and Kei stare at each other awkwardly. God it's so awkward.

“Would you… like to come in?” Kageyama is using the same constipated expression he has when he compliments a spike. Tsukishima nods and follows Kageyama inside the house anyway because for some reason he finds that expression somewhat endearing and he still needs to say “happy birthday.” He probably should have said it _before_ he gave the present but his brain wasn't quite working properly.

Kei takes in his surroundings. Like the outside, the inside of Kageyama’s house is elegant and neat. He follows Kageyama to the living room area and Kageyama turns around. Before he can say anything, Kei notices a white stain on his black shirt.

“What's that on your shirt,” he asks before he can stop himself.

Kageyama looks down and blushes. “Flour?”

“Are you asking _me_?” Kageyama glares at him. “Wait flour? Are you _cooking_?”

Kageyama nods slowly.

“Wow, King. I never thought you knew how to cook. I always figured you had servants to do that kind of lowly tasks for you. To think you're actually capable of doing something other than playing volleyball!”

Kageyama’s frown deepens. “Of course I can cook, you dumbass!”

Tsukishima laughs. He's starting to feel a little more comfortable. Acting like a smartass always does the trick. “I have to see what the King is capable of preparing,” he claims as he starts to walk towards where —he guesses— the kitchen is.

“You're baking?” He half-asks, half-states when he sees the kitchen counter covered in bags of flour, sugar, butter, and several mixing bowls. It's just seems a little silly to think that Kageyama Tobio, —setter extraordinaire, volleyball obsessed, academic mess and just all around idiot, — is _baking_. “You're sure full of surprises, King. What are you baking, anyway?”

Kageyama face turns red. He grits his teeth and mutters something that Tsukishima doesn't catch.

“What's that King?” Kageyama repeats himself, a little louder but still incomprehensible. “Please articulate a little more, would you?”

“I said I'm baking a cake, ok?”

A cake. Kei realizes why Kageyama was reluctant to tell him. Baking a cake isn't really the issue. Baking a cake on his own birthday is just sort of sad.

“You're baking a cake? On your own birthday?”

“What's wrong with it?” Kageyama says defensively.

“Seriously? Do I really have to spell out to how sad it is that you're baking your own birthday cake?”

“Did you come here to insult me?” Kageyama looks like he’s about to —literally— kick Tsukishima out of his house.

That freezes Tsukishima. He came to give Kageyama a present and to wish him a happy birthday (and _maybe maybe_ to tell him about his feelings for him). He is literally doing the opposite of what he came here to do. He shakes his head, blushing in shame.

“I… came here to give you that present.”

Kageyama seems to remember that he is holding the box and he also seems ashamed to have yelled at Tsukishima. They stand in yet more awkward silence until Kageyama speaks again. “Can I open it?”

Tsukishima stops himself from another sarcastic comment. He only nods and Kageyama starts carefully unwrapping the gift. Tsukishima starts panicking and he wishes that Kageyama would hurry so he can leave already and then never speak of it again.

When Kageyama finally unwraps the bag, Tsukishima considers running but then Kageyama looks up at him with wide eyes and his heart melts a little bit. “Do you like it?”

He hates how small and hopeful his voice sounds. Kageyama nods furiously and Kei releases a breath he's embarrassed to admit he was holding. “I… Thank you…”

It's almost the same thing that Kageyama said to him before. But this time he says it with something in his voice that Kei has never heard. It's surprise and gratefulness and there's a little something that he can't quite name. Fondness? Wonder? Nostalgia?

Kageyama is holding the sports bag like it might break and Kei feels the need to break the tense atmosphere. “It's really not a big deal. The state of your current bag embarrasses me and we can't have our setter loose one of his kneepads because it fell through a hole in his beat up sports bag. And it's your birthday so I figured it was a good occasion to give it to you. So there. Happy birthday.”

Well, he finally managed to say it. It did not go as well as he hoped but it also didn't go as bad as he expected. Kei is counting it as a win.

“Thank you.”

Kei starts panicking again. What he came to do is done. This is probably the part where he should leave. The thing is that he doesn't want to leave. He wants to make Kageyama smile again and he doesn't want him to be alone on his birthday. So, he says the first thing that comes to his mind.

“Would you like help baking?”

* * *

 Tsukishima Kei is a terrible baker, Tobio quickly finds out. He can tell that Tsukishima doesn't do a lot of cooking on his own house. It's not that he’s messing up really badly or anything. It's more that he refuses to follow the instructions that Tobio gives him. He questions everything he's told and Tobio doesn't really understand why it's necessary to make such a big deal of the order of the ingredients. Yes, it will probably be the same if he puts the baking powder before the flour but is it necessary to insist on changing it?

He tries to give him easy tasks but he ends up putting Tsukishima strictly on mixing duty when he notices that some of the egg whites he asked for have some leftover yolk in them. “There's only one way to do this. Please do it correctly, would you?”

Tsukishima sneers, “Even a toddler can manage this, King.”

Of course, Tsukishima manages to throw some flour out of the bowl as spins the whisk with too much strength.

Kageyama sighs, “Get the flour that’s by the sides first and then the one from the middle.”

Tsukishima frowns. “That’s what I was trying to do but it… didn’t work.”

Tobio rolls his eyes and grabs the bowl and the whisk “Like this,” he says doing the motion slowly.

Tsukishima tries to imitate him but it looks awkward when he does it. Tobio turns his head to the side, “Try holding your hand on the same place and turning the bowl instead.”

Tsukishima truly is a lost cause. Tobio watches him struggle in amusement before he decides that he should probably stop him before Tsukishima throws the bowl in frustration. He places his hand over the hand Tsukishima has holding the whisk and guides his hand in the correct motion. Tsukishima stops spinning the bowl and it's only then that Tobio realizes what's he's doing.

He takes off his hand and looks away from Tsukishima, who’s staring at him. “That's it, more or less. I'll check if the oven is ready.”

Tobio's face is bright red. He takes a couple of deep breaths and turns back. He finds Tsukishima in a similar situation —he's staring down at the bowl, mixing furiously but Kageyama can see that the tip of his ears is bright red—. He thinks this is probably what Hinata meant when he told Tobio that he and Tsukishima took turns mooning over the other. At the time, it seemed ridiculous to think that Tsukishima was interested in him, but after the past hour he's starting to think he might actually have a shot. He came by to visit him and say happy birthday and he offered to help with the cake and he even bought him a present. A very nice present.

Tobio isn't used to receiving nice gifts from people who aren't his relatives. The bag Tsukishima gave him implies a lot of things. That he noticed Tobio’s bag was worn out, that he knows which brand Tobio likes, and that he knows him well enough to buy him a bag that he likes. There’s also the fact that Tsukishima choose to visit him to give him the gift instead of giving it him on school. It makes him happy, for some reason.

Tobio pours the mixture on the mold and puts it on the oven.

“It should take around thirty minutes to be done,” he tells Tsukishima.

Tsukishima nods and there’s yet another awkward silence between them. Tsukishima breaks it after minute, asking, “So how come you’re baking your own cake, King?”

Tobio stiffens, “Why do you care?”

Tsukishima raises his hands. “I’m not trying to be mean. I guess I didn’t mean it like that. What I mean is, why not just _buy_ a cake.”

Tobio hums, “Well, I like baking for once. And I don’t like store-bought cake all that much. I’m used to homemade,” he stops for a second, but decides to continue, “my mom and I used to bake one every year but she’s busy this year at the hospital. And I still wanted cake.”

He doesn't mention that she was also busy the past three years. Tsukishima doesn’t need to know that yet. He thinks he managed to make a good job of making Tsukishima understand that it’s not really that depressing because Tsukishima is nodding in understanding.

“Well, I’m eager to see if this cake if as good as you’re making it to be.”

Tobio gets a fierce expression in his face. “It will.”

Tsukishima laughs at him but for once, Tobio doesn’t feel like he’s making fun of him. He smiles back at him.

“So, is your mom a nurse?” Tsukishima asks, trying to make conversation.

Kageyama shakes his head, “She’s a doctor,” he says with pride. Tsukishima actually looks interested in what Tobio is saying so he continues to tell him a little bit more about her.

They talk more. Tobio talks more about his mom and in return, Tsukishima tells him about his brother and parents. It doesn’t seem that a long time has passed when the timer chimes, signaling that the cake should be done. Tobio stands up and takes the cake out of the oven. He takes it out of the mold carefully and tells Tsukishima to wait for it to cool down before they can ice it.

“I want to take a piece right now.”

“If you fancy burning yourself, be my guest,” he tells Tsukishima, who scoffs.

“You’re not funny, King,” he says, but he’s smiling now.

When the cake cools Tobio hands Tsukishima some icing. “Just do whatever you want.”

Because Tsukishima is complete asshole, the first thing he does is smear icing on Tobio’s nose. Tobio’s eyes widen. He stares dumbfounded at Tsukishima who laughs wholeheartedly at him. Tobio’s stomach flutters at him. He likes Tsukishima’s laugh a lot. But still, he won’t let the jerk get away with that. He smears some of his own on Tsukishima’s face and grabs the icing that Tsukishima is holding before he can retaliate.

“We’re not wasting the icing,” he says with a serious face. Tsukishima stares at him, challenging, but nods. That’s when Tobio notices how close Tsukishima is to him. He can see his reflection on his glasses and he realizes that Tsukishima has some freckles. His face turns bright red again. He starts to move away but Tsukishima grabs his wrist and he freezes.

“King. Wait, no. _Kageyama._ I… God, this is is stupid I’m stupid. You’re stupid.”

“Excuse me?”

Tsukishima groans. “I’m sorry. I don’t have too much of a filter when I’m nervous.”

“You’re nervous?”

“What I’m trying to say,” he says, ignoring Tobio. “Is that I like you.”

Tobio’s brain short circuits. “What?”

“I like you alright? God knows why but I do. Actually, I do know why. You’re a complete idiot but somehow you manage to be endearing and you’re so passionate about everything you and you don’t put up with my shit and you encourage me to do better and and and you _bake_! Granted, I didn’t know that before today but for some reason it makes me like you even more. And you’re baking your own cake for your birthday! What’s up with that? That’s the saddest thing I’ve heard but somehow you make it something enjoyable! And… you have pretty eyes.”

Tobio stares at Tsukishima and blinks.

“Listen, forget I said anything alright? Let’s say I just came by to give you your present and I left. Nothing else happened and I…”

Tsukishima’s words are drowned when Tobio closes the gap between them and kisses him.

Tsukishima’s lips are warm against his and he can taste a little bit of the icing on them. Tsukishima is taken aback for instant but then he’s kissing Tobio back. They move slowly, hesitatingly, but it’s breathtaking and it makes Tobio feel like he's floating. When they pull away, Tobio’s face somehow feels even warmer than before. Tsukishima clears his throat.

“I… take it you like me back?”

Tobio nods. “I do. And thank you for the present again. It was amazing.”

Tsukishima smiles. He learns forward and gives Tobio another short kiss. “Let’s finish the cake, shall we?”

Tobio nods. When they finish icing the cake, he serves two pieces and hands one to Tsukishima. When they try it, it looks like Tsukishima has gone to heaven. Tobio takes a bite and even he thinks it tastes better than usual, but it might be in his head.

“You’re right, King. This cake puts everything I’ve ever tasted to shame.”

“I told you so.”

Tsukishima smiles, “I’m sure it also has to do with the fact that I helped. But I’ll give you most of the credit this time.”

“This time?”

“September twenty-seventh, King. Mark your calendar. I like strawberry shortcake.”

“Oh, now I’m baking for your birthday?”

“Of course you are, King. Though I guess I can be persuaded to assist you. I’ll have you know I’m a pro at mixing. Plus, we have to find a way to make an even better version of this cake on your birthday next year.”

Tsukishima’s grin is blinding. Tobio’s own smile is so big he fears his face might split in two. “Next year?”

“Yes. Next year.”

* * *

Tobio brings the cake to practice the next morning. His team mates don't think of asking who baked it, but Kei notices that every time someone praises the taste, Tobio blushes bright red and sneaks the smallest of smiles in Kei’s direction.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This is rushed because I really wanted to get something for Tobio's birthday and I barely managed to finish before his birthday ended in my timezone. 
> 
> This is for the birthday special event for Kageyema Rare Pair Week. I'm trying to have something up for each day so if you have any prompts feel free to send them to me! My tumblr is blueberrytobio. Please come talk to me about Tobio rare pairs!


End file.
